‘KonMari is a platform for connecting and supporting one another on our tidying journeys’ – this is how founder Marie Kondo describes her lifestyle brand. On the platform, you can find lifestyle tips (‘6 Ways to Purify Your Space’ or ‘Bonsai for Beginners’), order all sorts of tidying products in the online shop, or qualify as a Certified KonMari Consultant. ‘To kondo’ has become a verb meaning ‘to tidy a cupboard’, and Marie Kondo herself was included in Time’s ‘100 most influential people’ in 2015.

Marie Kondo was born in Tokyo in 1984. She became famous for her 2011 bestseller The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, which was translated into 27 languages and sold 7 million copies worldwide. From 2019, she received even more media attention with her tidying docutainment Netflix show ‘Tidying Up with Marie Kondo’, in which she visits American households and demonstrates how to de-clutter their homes using her KonMari method.

According to Marie Kondo, there are six steps on the path to proper living: start with ‘commit yourself to tidying up’ and ‘imagine your ideal lifestyle’, and end up with ‘ask yourself if it sparks joy’. The answer seems to be the affirmative! A precise demonstration of folding techniques by an instructor (Marie Kondo herself), de-cluttering and throwing out according to the given rules and norms are steps on this path to joyful living. This process aims to replace uncontrolled chaos with the order of things. The instructor, by demonstrating the act of discarding, de-cluttering and sorting, not only shows us an ideal image of living but even promises us ecstasy through cleaning up: ‘spark joy’ and ‘passion for tidying’! Netflix already commissioned a second series in 2020, ensuring that our living spaces and emotions will continue to be organised and de-cluttered.

Similar success is being enjoyed by the twin brothers Drew and Jonathan Scott, stars and protagonists of the reality TV series ‘Property Brothers’, which is made by HGTV and broadcast in 150 countries. The background story is simple: Drew is a real estate expert for property in need of refurbishment, Jonathan is a licensed contractor who deals with the renovations. Within a strict timeline and budget, the Property Brothers have been ‘helping’ families transform their properties into dream homes for more than 170 episodes.

Perhaps the fact that Drew actually wanted to become an actor and Jonathan an illusionist helps in their popular representation of the home dreams of the American middle class. The show is one of the most successful formats on HGTV. In the celebrity episode, even Brad Pitt cannot hold back his tears when he sees the transformation of his make-up artist friend’s garden shed into a narrow white combined kitchen – guest house – make-up studio – storage space. It is definitely not spatial innovation, unique design, or new possibilities of living together that fascinate an audience of millions and moved Brad Pitt to tears. The Property Brothers’ finished living spaces are reminiscent of a conservative version of the IKEA catalogue: in grey and white, with lots of mirrors, we see the rise of dominant imageries of living that we are all familiar with. As with Marie Kondo, the brothers are centre stage, as protagonists, illusionists, and entertainers who act out the transformation from non-living to correct living.

An enthusiastic audience is able to follow this transformation in front of the camera on platforms like Netflix or HGTV: how to really live, sleep, eat and love properly! Living spaces become the perfect setting for subjects to show themselves (on a platform like Instagram) and, given the subject is appropriately educated, to show how to live correctly.

Showing how to organise your home, and therefore how to live your life, is not a new phenomenon invented by Ms. Kondo or the Property Brothers. Back in the 1950s, living manuals and household magazines which clearly showed how the housewife had to organise her kitchen were very popular. What seems new today is that the Property Brothers and Marie Kondo present norms and standards of living in an ‘easy watching’ entertainment format, casually, and as if by accident. There are also a lot of merchandising products offering to support our attempts to achieving correct living: for instance, the ‘Property Brothers Handbook’, which includes design tips and ‘inspirational photos*’*. Good luck, happy world!